Selected dairy entries, Jan. 12-July 3, 2011

Jan. 12, 2011 – Ate whole bag Double Chocolate Chips Ahoy. Le Targete has best $$. Busy for Sat night. Felt buzzy. Lights so bright. Old lady looked right at me and smiled.

Feb. 20, 2011 – Bought mom fish sticks. Sez Le Targete brand best $$. Got pretzel at food counter. Cashier brown-eyed girl. Big nerdy customer brag to her about his electronic gear.

Feb. 25, 2011 – Use computer at library. Le Targete has 3,356 stores. Only in last five years add groceries and pharmacy. Profits +340%. No wonder. They bring it all together. Right in our community. Not fancy but bright colors and big pictures. Cool hang out.

March 2, 2011 – Bought mom toilet seat. Hot new summer pix in women’s section.

March 5, 2011 – Bought hot dog combo meal from brown-eyed girl. Gina. Asked if she liked job. Yah — they hiring!

March 19, 2011 – Start in inventory. Boss wear head set all day. Remembers where most stuff is but I found Bertel’s Custom bedsheet ties. Score!

March 30, 2011 – At library found Retail Industry Daily and Big Box Report. Fierce competition! Bart Mart grocery purchases +5% when switch to light signage colors. Chinatown’s new inventory software cut cost 35%. Le Targete system old clunky.

April 4, 2011 – Fortune sez new Le Targete CEO Will Romness cut costs by hiring high school students. Da-dumb! Too immature!

April 15, 2011 – Thinking of going back to community college. Get business degree. Should I write Will Romness tell him my ideas? Create binder. Call it Le Targete Manifesto! Color-coded sections for inventory, floor plan design, marketing, etc.

April 16, 2011 – Gina say Le Targete has scholarship. Need to get recommendation from boss.

April 20, 2011 – Saw high school cashier diss customer. Nobody do anything.

April 30, 2011 – Boss so busy. Maybe talk next week.

May 6, 2011 – Boss barely say hi in morning.

May 13, 2011 – Bring manifesto and leave on chair. Gina notice. Sez I’m smart.

May 19, 2011 – Wall Street Journal sez Le Targete stock down 5%. Bart Mart +12%. They put groceries up front. Duh!

May 23, 2011 – Boss go on vacation put me in charge. Score!

June 1, 2011 – Boss back complain candy stock too low.

June 3, 2011 – Get library books on advertising. Design back-to-school campaign.

June 10, 2011 – Boss have trouble downloading report for big boss. I fix. Score!

June 21, 2011 – Fill out scholarship application. Just need boss’s signature. Deadline for fall quarter coming soon!

June 28, 2011 – See college advisor. He suggest courses. Give me name of prof to talk to.

July 2, 2011 – Finally talk to boss. I almost drop manifesto. She look quickly and call me a nerd. Recommend for scholarship? No way!

Later walk by food counter. Gina ask if I want pretzel. Nah. Do I want to go to mall tomorrow?

July 3, 2011 – Fill out job app for Radio Shack. Gina know someone. Go to her place. Bring Chips Ahoy. She has beer. Le Targete brand. We puke.

I was reminded of that yesterday when thinking about a senior-level legislative policy wonk I’d worked with as a reporter in the 1990s. Let’s call him Fred Magellan. During the early-90s he had the good fortune of riding a reform wave that allowed him to play a powerful policy-development role. Fred was an architect of what were then among the most nationally ambitious new state laws in his policy area. At that point I could see him feeling like he had heaven on his side.

The big wave crashes — and never comes back

Only one problem: This particular reform movement was much smarter about policy mechanics than electoral politics. The passage of this movement’s legislative agenda helped unleash one of the bigger backlashes that have engulfed Washington’s capitol. Over the next few years a Republican-controlled Legislature removed, piece by piece, key foundation stones of Fred’s policy architecture.

Oddly enough, Fred wasn’t pushed out of his legislative job by the new Republican leadership. But it may have been even harder for him to stay and watch. So I’m not surprised that Fred eventually moved over to a state agency to finish out his long and distinguished career in Washington government.

After I left my reporting job I lost track of Fred for 13 years. Only by coincidence did our paths cross again. A family member became a coworker of Fred’s wife. Eventually we were all invited over for dinner. Fred didn’t remember me but was eager to talk about the difficult final years of his career.

Killing him softly with cynicism

What was most striking about Fred was how cynical he had become. Even leaders who I had viewed as wearing white hats had fatal flaws in Fred’s eyes. Indeed, to hear him talk, Olympia was a toxic environment where “trust no one” should be the prevailing rule.

Yet Fred still had a small spark of hope. After dessert was served he took me into his study and printed out a draft opinion piece he planned to submit to a major daily newspaper. It was an elegance essay that displayed his remarkable depth of knowledge. Yet his policy idea wasn’t going anywhere. I knew it. Fred knew it.

Last I heard, Fred’s health was deteriorating and he was hard to be around. I wonder how much his physical problems and mood were spurred by his political disillusionment. Was it all the more painful because Fred wrapped so much of his life around being a change agent for a what has too often looked like a doomed cause?

Forgetting even the hundred-year view

What brought me to think about Fred was a recently-posted essay by green activist Kurt Koelting. In “Never Forget the Thousand Year View,” he writes about why he spends a week at a Whidbey Island Zen monastery — twice a year, every year. You don’t need to have an affinity for Zen Buddhism to appreciate his basic point: that being an effective change agent requires a certain groundedness; a balance between the personal and the political.

I’ve nibbled around the margins of this topic before in “Can the blogosphere help integrate the personal and the political?” I’ve found it exceedingly rare that local change-oriented publications pay any attention to personal growth, and when they do it tends to be dismissive. A classic example of the latter is Amy Levinson’s broadside against a Vipassana mediation retreat, which was printed last year in Works In Progress.

Each to his own. In Fred’s case, perhaps he will eventually find some sense of renewal by teaching a few classes at a nearby university. But maybe not. His policy defeats may loom too large in his psyche to see around.

Unlike many student newspapers, the CPJ is not operated by an academic department — it is a Student Activities organization. A glorified club, complete with clubhouse.

At first glance that may sound inconsequential, but over the long run a newspaper’s “authorizing environment” can make a huge difference. An academic program will treat the student newspaper as an important learning laboratory. Indeed, in a good program, the coursework will support the lab rather than vice versa. Direct — but expertly guided — experience is the best teacher. This is why a key measure of a journalism program’s quality is the stature of its student newspaper.

I can’t crawl inside the head of the CPJ’s big, big, big boss Art Costantino, vice president of Student Affairs. But the CPJ during his tenure has not shown signs that journalistic skill building has been a priority. If anything, the quality has declined. That’s why I imagine — and he should correct me if I’m wrong — that his biggest priorities for the paper have been to 1) stay within its allotted budget and 2) not cause the administration undue grief.

The trouble with a good student newspaper is that it will make life uncomfortable for the administration. Just as dogs chase cars, fledgling journalists ask impertinent questions. Sometimes they discover something embarrassing . . . that could even end up on KING 5 News.

That’s why I can’t imagine a vice president of Student Affairs signing off on hiring a student publications advisor who is a real journalistic go-getter. Sure, they should display some trade skills, but it is much safer to stick with the more artsy-fartsy and touchy-feely kind.

Maybe the CPJ’s new advisor, Reaz Mahmood, will surprise us. Maybe under his tenure the CPJ will grow some journalistic teeth. But even if Mahmood wants to go that route I suspect that his authorizing environment will make it all but impossible . . . unless the CPJ moves over to the academic side of the college.

I don’t present this as a panacea given that Evergreen doesn’t have a real journalism program. (See previous discussion.) But shifting the CPJ over to the academic side could at least give the paper political insulation to do its job. And over time student staff would hopefully start receiving more than group hugs.

The weekly paper’s one bright spot has always been its comics section. Sure, some years have been better than others, but this is the publication that helped launch the careers of Lynda Barry and Matt Groening. Okay, that’s a thin list, but how many nationally acclaimed reporters or editors can you name who got their start at Evergreen?

This fall the CPJ shifted from print to an all-electronic platform. I wouldn’t be surprised if this has decimated ad revenue, but to my eyes the biggest victim has been a further drop off in the paper’s journalistic quality. Check out what goes for news coverage these days. Looks like a glorified bulletin board. Fortunately, the CPJ still offers a bountiful supply of comics, some of which display some real (if raw) talent.

So let’s say you are one of those students who really enjoys editorial cartooning. And you get promising feedback from faculty members. It is realistic for you to attempt to launch a cartooning career after you graduate?

The Columbia Journalism Review offers a sobering answer to that question in the story, “Cartooning for a Sustainable Future: Will editorial cartoonists find their (paid) place on the web?” Reporter Alysia Santo sheds light on a paradox: Just as the media are becoming more visual, editorial cartoonists are having an increasingly difficult time earning a living at their craft. So they have tried to think out of the box in coming up with ways to generate adequate compensation for their work.

This article adds to our ongoing discussion about how to pay for quality journalism, e.g., Tom Hyde’s comments about alternative funding models.

In addition, if you enjoy editorial cartooning you may find some cool new links, such as to Daily Kos’s political cartoon page, which is run by This Modern World cartoonist Dan Perkins (a.k.a., Tom Tomorrow). Or how about Cartoon Movement, which is a showcase for political cartoons from around the world. Santo points out a provocative series it has run on Osama Bin Laden’s death.

From a creative standpoint, if I could choose between being a political writer and a cartoonist I’d choose the latter. A good cartoon can be much more powerful than the printed word. But it sounds like the latter road may be a much tougher one. Unless you’re content to do a blog.

The whistleblower complaint asserted that the director, Cathy Canorro, used her position to secure special privileges for a friend. The Auditor’s investigation found “reasonable cause to believe an improper governmental action occurred.”  That’s language directly from the report.

The complaint centers around Canorro signing a sole-source personal services contract for $65,000 with John M. King to perform organizational development consulting. The Auditor’s report stated: “State law has specific requirements regarding competitively solicited and sole-source contracts. ‘Sole source’ means the professional or technical expertise needed is of such a unique nature that only one contractor can clearly and justifiably provide the service. The justification is to be based on the uniqueness of the service or its sole availability at the location required.”

So was King uniquely qualified to provide the consulting assistance needed? The Auditor’s report doesn’t directly weigh in on that. It instead focuses on Canorro’s ties to King and how she advertised the contract for two days, which the Auditor’s report implies was not enough time for other potentially qualified parties to submit an application.

In the absence of further information I’m conflicted about this one. Transparency and fairness are crucial to cultivating public trust in government. At the same time, organizational development can be really complex and sensitive. Going with the lowest bidder can be penny-wise and pound foolish. And having prior experience with a consultant can be a real plus.

That said, I don’t know the backstory here. For example, could King be more effective as a consultant because he knew the director or would that create a chilling effect when working with staff? The commentator msndis gets at that by stating: “(B)ringing in a friend to figure out what needs to be fixed in an agency doesn’t really give staff a safe environment to give their opinions in. If I had been one of the staff being interviewed, I would know that whatever I said could be twisted or not used at all if the consultant wanted to protect his friend.”

Another fairly nuanced comment is from catmando, who states: “I work for a state agency and have for years and I can say that this type of thing does not happen where i work.  I agree this is not right, but to conclude this happens everywhere is shortsighted and lazy.”

Otherwise the comments represent a greatest hits of rhetorical overkill from both the left and right. For example, Skiier74 states, “If it’s good enough for Halliburton, it’s good enough for…”

What’s sad is that if The Olympian’s comment threads were safe for civil discourse by mainstream, psychologically well-adjusted people, this article could have spurred an indepth conversation about how to deal with these contracting issues.

This is why the proposed construction of a 7-Eleven on the corner of Harrison and Division represents a greater risk than converting a competitor’s store. For example, 7-Eleven has recently announced the purchase of 28 stores and sites from Pacific Convenience & Fuels LLC, 55 Sam’s Mart stores and 51 ExxonMobil stores and sites.

However, according to a store locator, 7-Eleven — which is a subsidiary of a Japanese-owned holding company — currently has only five stores in the Olympia area and none on Olympia’s Westside.

Portland, Oregon a target for expansion

KATU.com reports that Portland is among the markets that 7-Eleven has embarked on an “accelerated growth plan.” Last year the Woodstock Neighborhood Association unsuccessfully fought a proposed store because “they thought it would bring an increase in crime and traffic. The location is also the gateway to the Woodstock neighborhood and they didn’t think a 7-Eleven convenience store would set the right tone,” reports Shannon L. Cheesman.

Now 7-Eleven has announced plans to build new stores in the Vernon and St. John’s neighborhoods — and more could be on the way. The announced sites are zoned for commercial storefront, reports Cheesman.

The city’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement requires convenience stores to come up with a “Good Neighbor Agreement” that addresses issues such as loitering, alcohol use, litter control, neighbor relations and landscaping, reports OregonLive.com. However, the agreement need not be approved by the neighborhood in order for the store to be built, reports KATU.com’s Cheesman.

There goes the neighborhood

Other communities where a 7-Eleven has recently faced resistance include Nutley, New Jersey; New Haven, Connecticut; and West Islip, New York.

The stories all have a certain sameness about them. Residents tend to be caught flatfooted by a proposal and flounder around trying to understand the land-use laws and rules that may apply to a given situation. And despite sometimes heated debate, the stores invariably go through. One might argue that zoning provides the developer with more protection than a neighborhood, e.g., unless a comprehensive plan is written tightly and is in sync with current zoning.

So the 7-Elevens keep sprouting. And, at best, neighborhoods such as Portland’s Woodstock get some type of accommodation, such as minimizing signage and a corporate donation to the neighborhood association.

“So it has not been all bad,” a Woodstock neighborhood association spokesperson told KATU.com of the recently opened store. “Still, we do not find 7-Eleven a vital part of the neighborhood at all.”

I must admit that I didn’t include TVW in my list of capital-focused news media outlets partly because I’m pretty print centric. Until TVW launched a blog it has focused on broadcast-based coverage. Because of my bias I haven’t paid all that much attention to TVW’s efforts to go beyond filming public-affairs events. Writing this piece has forced me to update my assumptions.

Taking another look at TVW

TVW’s programming reminds me of what some of the better metropolitan television stations used to offer back before the dreaded Fairness Doctrine was unplugged. Younger readers might instead see similarities with national-level programming of the Public Broadcasting System.

Tom Hyde may well be right when he described niche news outlets as “the refuge of traditional media.” Step by step TVW has been building its journalistic capacity — and the capital press corps has been shrinking — to the point where TVW has become the news outlet of record for state government.

One of TVW’s longest-running programs is Inside Olympia. The capital insiders I know consider this a must-watch program. That’s partly because it is well produced but also because there’s not much else out there.

TVW also offers a number of other regular programs such as Legislative Review, The Impact and Faces and Places. While these shows may not always possess the “star quality” — and sometimes the reportorial polish — of commercial stations, they can offer an unusual amount of depth for television. So if you’re more into watching film rather than reading, TVW could function as your exclusive source of capital news.

A more recent TVW edition has been a blog, The Capitol Record. As with all of its other programming one can expect high attention to factual accuracy and objectivity. Although some of the material has a press release quality, stories about proposed legislation do sketch out competing positions. Perhaps the biggest downside of this coverage is its TV-like brevity. I don’t think it is a substitute for more indepth and interpretive coverage from the likes of the Washington State Wire, PubliCola or Crosscut.

Is TVW a model worth expanding to local government?

TVW is run by an independent nonprofit but owes its existence to Washington state government, which is its primary funder. Might we start seeing TVW-like entities that offer public affairs programming that goes beyond broadcasting meetings? Indeed, might TVW itself branch out by offering to local governments a package of programming on a contractual basis?

Picture this: At some point in the future The Olympian is officially downgraded to a zoned edition of The News Tribune. Coverage of local governments becomes so sparse — and none of the other media outlets sufficiently expand — that all of the jurisdictions in Thurston County get together and ask TVW to manage a portfolio of public affairs programming. The goal is independent and objective journalism rather than the usual TCTV fare.

The cost would be significantly covered by the jurisdictions but a sponsorship and membership system would also be managed by TVW. Perhaps some type of a media tax assessment could reduce the potential for funding-cut threats in response to programming that did not sufficiently glorify some elected leaders.

As with TVW’s state-level programming, there would still be a need for privately owned media outlets to offer deeper analysis and interpretation. But at least Thurston County would have a media outlet “of record” on which others could build upon.

That may seem like a wild-eyed idea right now given the budget difficulties of local governments. But what happens if the legacy media continue to cut back their local coverage and the new media don’t pick up the slack? Something has to give. Hopefully it won’t be the public’s right to know.

UPDATE: After the original story was posted I changed the headline and added some analysis to the last section. 

The public park, located at the corner of 15th Ave S. and S. Dakota Street, will include a variety of crops, a community gathering space, and a children’s area. Mellinger says that various trees will be “mixed with berry shrubs, climbing vines, herbaceous plants, and vegetables closer to the ground.”

The project design was finalized last September and work parties are being held with the goal of completing the project’s first phase in 2012 (see schematic). The project has been partially funded through a $20,000 ”Small and Simple Neighborhood Matching Grant” from Seattle’s Dept. of Neighborhoods.

Mellinger says the idea emerged from a 2009 workshop held by Jenny Pell of Permaculture Now! The project may be down to down-to-earth but it is rooted in sustainability and permaculture transition theories of social change. Here’s background on edible forests.

Beacon Hill isn’t the only edible forest in western Washington. University Place has a 7.3-acre apple orchard park, which it bought in 1993 and turned it into a public space.

Okay, so what about Olympia?

This would seem to be a particularly ripe idea for Olympia. We have lots of public land in local and state hands, a cutting-edge college, a growing number of edible landscape consultants, and a mayor with background in sustainable food systems.

All true, but take a careful read of the Mellinger story. It primarily focuses on the many bureaucratic challenges that Beacon Hill citizen activists have had to overcome. And they possess advantages we don’t have in Olympia, such as a the City of Seattle’s greater support for neighborhood-level governance.

Of course, some obstacles are universal, such as the “modern” tendency to look at an edible landscape as a weird hippie fantasy. Somehow we’ve gotten into our heads the idea that food production should be completely distinct from our everyday urban or suburban reality. One result: Local and state government spend a meaningful amount of acreage and money on maintaining ornamental landscapes that could be edible.

How much local interest might there be on this issue? The Olympian ran a story on edible landscapes only last week — but that was a syndicated piece from Ohio. Fertile Ground has planted an edible forest at its site,  and the Cooper Point Neighborhood Association has helped develop one on a resident’s yard. Meanwhile, the Evergreen State College is adding more edible landscaping around campus. However, if something bigger is cooking, I haven’t come across it yet on the intertubes.

What do you know, dear readers? Did ideas revolving around edible forests on public lands gain traction at the recent food summit?

UPDATE: The Olympian posted a story about a Roy low-income housing complex that includes an apple orchard. Cool idea.

For example, Laurian calls the Washington State Wire a “right wing opinion blog.” Really? Let’s take a look at a few examples of its original reporting. “Governor Signs Gay Marriage Bill — One for the Legacy!” struck me as routine, objective reporting. If this were Faux News you’d see an obvious negative bias in the headline and high up in the story.

I argued in my post that the Wire’s story choices, framing and sources sometimes suggest a right-wing tilt. But in my mind a tilt is very different from an unfiltered source of propaganda. Consider the Wire’s piece on fundraising for the governor’s race, which emphasizes that Inslee isn’t doing as well as his campaign would like folks to think. Is this routine journalism or a right-wing smear? Unless there is an angle that I’m not aware of, this strikes me as routine journalism. Inslee is the underdog in this race and the latest fundraising numbers are merely one indicator. Am I a right-wing blogger because I’ve questioned the viability of Inslee’s campaign?

Tom Hyde implicitly raises the question of whether the legacy press has abandoned its long-standing mission of providing 24/7 news coverage. Have newspapers cut so deeply into their editorial ranks that we must now rely upon the likes of Facebook for breaking news coverage? If so, what happens when those small-scale communication networks don’t work very well?

At the moment I’m most curious about coverage of Mayor Stephen Buxbaum’s letter to the city council regarding a proposed Westside 7-Eleven. The Olympian ran a front-page, banner-headline story by Matt Batcheldor on Monday. The story was fairly detailed for Olympian fare but didn’t rise above glorified stenography.

He-said, she-said reporting would make sense if Batcheldor was writing under deadline. But if he wasn’t, or if he is currently working on a follow-up story, my idea of good journalism would be to offer context from objective third-parties such as land-use law experts. Batcheldor should also dig up examples of similar controversies. For example, 7-Eleven has come up against considerable neighborhood resistance to its “accelerated growth plan” for Portland, Oregon (see here and here).

What’s most interesting to me is how quiet the intertubes have been about this subject. The activist group stop7eleven has not updated its website since last November; its last public statement appears to be in the January Works In Progress. I haven’t yet seen anything on Oly.blog or the other local public affairs-oriented blogs I’m familiar with.

This illustrates the basic problem with Olympia’s news media. If the monopoly daily doesn’t cover a story adequately, we are dependent upon potluck journalism — whatever some volunteer has the time, skills and motivation to write. That strikes me as a dangerous place to be.

The Wire appears to have been in operation for almost two years but isn’t listed in the Columbia Journalism Review’s Digital Frontier Database. I discovered the Wire only a few months ago when a colleague sent me a link. I was impressed with the web-based news outlet’s unusually deep level of factual detail regarding a fairly obscure issue — a $42 million Wenatchee Public Facilities District default.

Oh, boy! I thought. Good, old-fashioned journalism focused entirely on state-level issues. That’s exactly what Washington has needed. Other niche outlets such as Crosscut, PubliCola and Northwest New Network have offered some state-level coverage, but that’s not their prime focus.

The Wire describes itself as an “independent nonpartisan newsgathering organization.” Coverage includes a mixture of staff-written original reporting and opinion augmented by a useful aggregation of links.

News reporting can tilt to the right

The Wire’s news reporting displays basic journalistic standards of he-said, she-said balance. However, the overall editorial tone can tilt more to the right than state capital coverage from other Puget Sound-based news outlets. This can play out in story selection, framing and sources emphasized.

For example, Wire reporter Erik Smith has framed budget reform narrowly as finding ways to rein in runaway spending (see here, here and here). You’ll have to look elsewhere for much coverage of revenue-side reform, such as Crosscut contributor Dick Nelson or Stateline.org.

So what? The press can help define Washington state’s political center of gravity during a particularly volatile election year. How news outlets define reality can be colored by biases, both of the reporter as well as his or her employer. Those biases, in turn, can be influenced by the business model of that particular news outlet.

What is the Wire’s business model?

The Wire’s website declares, “We’re not just a blog — we like to think of ourselves as part of the next wave of journalism, sort of an evolutionary step in the news business.” They don’t go on to describe what that step is so one can only speculate.

The Wire appears to be structured as a for-profit operation whose only source of revenue is advertising. However, just two ads can be found at the bottom of the page. Compare that to PubliCola, which Publisher Josh Feit says in a Columbia Journalism Review article is “essentially” breaking even on ad revenue. At first glance, one might think that the Wire’s readership would be pretty similar to PubliCola’s, which Feit describes as ”political junkies.”

But whereas PubliCola appears to primarily target Puget Sound readers, the Wire seems to focus more on the rest of the state. This makes a lot of sense, at least in theory. As a 2010 post-election Wire story discusses, Washington suffers from a sharp ideological split between the liberal, Democratic-leaning Puget Sound and the rest of the state, which is dominated by conservative Republicans. Might there be a good market for a capital news outlet that isn’t Puget Sound-centric?

Perhaps, but how do you translate that editorial focus into a viable ad base? So far the Wire appears to be targeting healthcare industry ads, in keeping with a good chunk of its news coverage. That doesn’t appear to be a broad enough base to pay the bills.

Unless the Wire will always be heavily subsidized by benefactors, it would seem to cry out for a business manager with the savvy of Thurst0ntalk.com.

Whistling through the graveyard

There’s a good reason why the Wire is the only news outlet that focuses on state-level issues — all the rest have gone out of business or diversified. For example, PubliCola started out with a heavy emphasis on legislative coverage but now focuses more on Seattle-area news. That may have been a pivotal business decision because, frankly, that’s where the money is.

I hope the Washington State Wire survives. It produces pretty good journalism and its right-tinted perspective is valuable — at least as long as it doesn’t devolve into an unfiltered propaganda tool for the Republican party and its allies.

As the great media critic A. L. Liebling wrote, “Diversity — and the competition that it causes — does not insure good news coverage or a fair champion for every point of view, but it increases the chances.”